Hillary Clinton would probably be a reasonably good Secretary of State.  She is a smart woman, she knows all the right people, and she knows where the bodies are buried.  This could be a very interesting choice.  According to today’s New York Times, she will take the job.

Let’s look at this a minute.  Barack Obama is a relatively young man, but as a Chicago politician, he is hardly naive.  He did manage to win the Presidency when it was assumed it belonged to Hillary Clinton.  He has met the right people and been in the right places to advance from Chicago to Washington in a very short time.  But let’s look at some of the past ‘adventures’ of the State Department.  The State Department is generally made up of career people who serve in all administrations.  However, during the past eight years, the State Department has pretty much undermined the Presidency of George Bush with leaks to the press and other maneuvers.   For example, let’s look at the infamous Valerie Plame scandal. 

According to the facts that later came out, it was known at the beginning of the investigation that Richard Armitage was the one who inadvertently leaked the fact that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA (the fact that she drove there every day evidently was not conclusive).  Even though the investigators had this fact, they continued the investigation, trapping Scooter Libby in a process crime.  Richard Armitage was never charged with anything, and Scooter Libby was sentenced to jail (later to be pardoned by President Bush).  What happened?  Richard Armitage worked for Colin Powell, who had more than one bone to pick with the Bush Administration.  The whole scandal made George Bush look bad and undermined public trust in his honesty and competence.  The American people were manipulated.

Other incidences of the State Department undermining the current administration were the leak of the terrorist money tracking program given to The New York Times and the leak of the holding facilities for terrorists in other countries.  The list goes on.  A State Department whose loyalty is political rather than patriotic can do serious damage to an administration and to our national security.  Watch carefully for events similar to the ones described above in the new administration.  For the sake of our country, I hope we will not see this type of politics in a Barack Obama presidency..